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Thursday, September 4, 2008

CITY'S 'MONEYMAN' JUST $QUEEZING BY

Two of the four top city officials are living almost entirely off their paychecks, according to financial-disclosure forms released yesterday.

Comptroller Bill Thompson was the only one of the four - including Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Mayor Bloomberg and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum - to list debts.

He reported an American Express bill and a revolving line of credit at North Fork Bank, now Capital One, each for $5,000 to $35,000.

Thompson, who earns $185,000, also indicated he's collecting rent from his "prime residence." Aides said the tenant is his first wife, who is paying $5,000 to $35,000 a year.

Quinn, who earns $141,000 a year, listed two pension accounts, each in the $5,000 and $35,000 category, as well as a house on the Jersey Shore in which she has a 50 percent interest.

The four-bedroom home, purchased in 2004, is worth more than $500,000.

It's hardly a secret who isn't just getting by: Bloomberg, a multibillionaire who accepts $1 a year in salary, and who joked on Monday that his charitable contributions help fund "half the museums in the city."

But the records show that Gotbaum doesn't have to worry about making the rent.

Though nowhere near Bloomberg's stratospheric league - a net worth estimated in some quarters at about $20 billion - Gotbaum's stock portfolio and IRA investments total at least $450,000 and as much as $1.2 million in 2007. She also collects Social Security of between $5,000 to $35,000 in addition to her $150,000 salary.

Gotbaum received permission from the Conflicts of Interest Board to list most of her stock holdings in broad categories rather than by name after taking a hit last year in one newspaper for owning certain pharmaceutical and oil stocks, all perfectly legal.

Bloomberg, who made public his disclosure form last month before the official release date yesterday, had so many holdings that his form ran on for 41 pages.

On Monday, he said the country is built on small businesses that grow to become giants.

"Some of them become big like Microsoft," said the mayor.

Former City Council member Una Clarke then made a crack about Bloomberg LP, the mayor's information-services company, rivaling Microsoft.

"That's the way my daughters and half the museums in the city eat," Bloomberg quipped.